Christmas Spirit
by Zee-Zee Magee
Summary: "There's a tiny person at the end of our bed demanding to open Christmas presents!" "That does sound like a problem!"  "Mommy! Daddy! We're going to miss Christmas!"


**A/N:** _OMG! I'm writing a Christmas fic and I hate Christmas! Why do I hate Christmas? It's a holiday created to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our lord and savior and that is why we open presents every December 25__th__ in his honor because he was kind enough to sacrifice himself for all of our sins! It is __**not **__a holiday where you should spend all of your time worrying about what you got and if it's as expensive as your rich uncle's gift from Tahiti! Maybe I'm a bit sentimental but that's what the traditional Christmas movies are all about! The joys of giving not the joys of out shopping!_

_Anyway, this idea popped into my head last night and refused to leave me alone! So, enjoy a future fic that is most definitely AU because honestly I have no idea how anybody is going to make this puppy a legit future fic when both characters are going to be way too old for this to happen to them by the end of the show run! Enjoy the only cheerful thing I see in Christmas: children's excitement over Santa's presents! _

_No, I do not own Leverage and thank you ever so much for the reminder!_

"Mommy, Daddy, wake up! It's Christmas!" a tiny voice spoke out from the bottom of the bed.

"Ugh," Sophie complained at the rude awakening.

"Shh," Nate begged of the woman at his side sleepily, "if we don't move she can't see us!"

"Mommy, Daddy!" the tiny voice repeated with pleading ferocity at the thought of her parents not hearing her, "Santa came!"

"If we just ignore the little monster it will go away," Sophie suggested as she kept both eyes firmly closed to catch however many more moments of precious sleep she could get.

"Hurry up!" the child urged as she progressed to sitting on the bed in such urgent matters, "Santa brought us presents and he'll be very mad if we don't open them right away!"

"I don't think she's leaving," Nate commented into the grifter's hair.

"Can't we have five more hours?" Sophie begged as she continued to refuse to open her eyes even for the glaring toddler at the end of her bed.

"What is she going to do for five hours?" Nate demanded of the grifter as he tried to not pry his eyes open at the demands from the toddler below.

"Presents!" the toddler announced with wide eyes at the fact her parents were taking forever to get themselves around.

"Have Hardison sit her down to watch movies," Sophie suggested smoothly, "She'll forget we even exist!"

"Our daughter?" Nate turned on the grifter with a half-awake raised eyebrow.

"She'll give up eventually," Sophie proposed with far too much hope in her voice.

"Mommy, Daddy, hurry!" the young girl responded in a sudden panic, "We're going to miss it!"

"Yep," Sophie commented boldly, "She's definitely mine!"

"I'll jump on you," the toddler hissed when she realized there was whole conversation going on around her.

"That's you!" Sophie announced to the mastermind in case he was confused on the topic.

"What do you want?" Nate playfully questioned of the small girl at the foot of the bed.

"Don't address it!" Sophie ordered sternly.

"But it's so cute," Nate responded as he looked at the miniature version of the grifter with blue eyes.

"Whatever you do don't look it in the eyes," Sophie explained knowingly, "That's a sign of weakness!"

"Aww!" Nate smiled at the pleading puppy eyes being thrown his way with blue eyes bulging out mercilessly.

"See," Sophie smirked at the mastermind's Kryptonite.

"Let's go guys!" the tiny child ordered in a huff, "I can hear you!"

"Yep," Nate nodded at the little figure at the end of his bed before turning his attention on the woman lying next to him, "That's proof she's yours!"

"Please!" the child stated as an afterthought with a brilliant smile of little white teeth.

"And now she's yours," Sophie commented sleepily, "I never use that word!"

"Please!" the little brunette at the end of the bed begged again with impossibly bigger eyes.

"I guess we should get up now, huh?" Nate asked of the grifter with a smirk at his daughter's wonderful tactic.

"Yes!" the child exclaimed with arms raised high in triumph before she scooted on closer to the couple to assist in waking the grifter up.

"Ugh!" Sophie complained as she rolled over to provide more room for the tiny demon, "What time is it?"

"Three thirty in the morning," Nate gasped at the absurd hour blaring at him in bright red on the alarm clock beside him.

"Ugh!" Sophie complained as she addressed the child cuddled close to her with narrowed eyes, "There is absolutely no way you are mine, you're too much of a morning person!"

The child just grinned an evil grin of pride at her mother's comment.

"We shall blame my father for that trait," Nate concluded with a smirk at the little girl's game.

"Mommy?" the demon child huffed at the grifter's absolute refusal to actually make an effort of getting out of bed.

"Yes, little person who looks exactly like me?" Sophie posed back to the little fluff ball practically curling into her side.

"Can we open presents now?" the child demanded with big blue eyes bulging out in a need for some form of pity to be shown upon her.

"I don't know," Sophie playfully mused with an evil smile as she closed her eyes again and tried not to laugh at the child's desperation.

"Please Daddy?" the child turned on her father on a dime as if he would never deny her anything and bulged out the blue eyes some more.

"Ahh," Nate commented at the puppy look of doom and torture, "the blue eyes! Now, I know why you could never say no to me all those years ago!"

"Let me see!" Sophie demanded as she cracked open an eye to observe her daughter's pair that matched her father's perfectly, "Yep, same eyes!"

"Guys!" the little child huffed at the abuse she was going through, "We're missing Christmas!"

"Oh fine," Nate rolled his eyes at the child's statement, "We'll open presents now!"

"Yay!" the child replied with a lot of clapping as she clambered off the bed as quickly as her little body could allow, "Christmas!"

"Yep definitely going into the family business," Nate sighed at the enthusiastic toddler running towards the Christmas tree, "poor kid!"

"My looks and your brain?" Sophie posed to the mastermind with a raised eyebrow at the statement.

"Yep, poor bad guys everywhere!" Nate nodded at the grifter's assessment with a smile.

"Hurry up, guys!" the young child demanded briskly of her parents with a glare that totally matched her mother's perfectly, "You're missing Christmas and Auntie P. says we can't open presents until you said we can!"

"We're coming Parker," Sophie growled at the toddler with amusement playing in her eyes, "And tell the blonde that she doesn't have to always send you in to do the dirty work! We didn't name you after her for nothing!"

"I heard that!" an irritated woman's voice that sounded eerily like the oldest Parker barked out from over the doorway.

"I know!" Sophie laughed as she and Nate shared a look.

"Hurry up!" a voice that sounded a lot like Hardison's huffed from near the tree, "I want to watch a movie but little P. told me I can't until we open up the presents!"

"See," a gruff voice that was most definitely Eliot shouted at the top of his lungs, "This is exactly what I told you would happen if you didn't let me help out at least a little! She went to bed early for crying out loud! You had to know this was going to happen!"

"Presents!" young Parker shouted out in glee as she immediately started handing out the array of Christmas gifts with great fervor.

"yep," Nate nodded at the toddler's careful handing out of gifts, "She's definitely ours!"

"I think you mean Merry Christmas, Nate," Sophie smiled as she watched her daughter and the woman she was named after have a present opening race while the boys were kind enough to time them.

Yep, Christmas is definitely the most magical time of the year.


End file.
